Yi Jianlian scored 29 points as Guangdong powered over Xinjiang 142-123 at home for a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven finals of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league on Friday.

Guangdong, better on both ends, gave the visitors no chance throughout the game. Besides a shining Yi, Zhou Peng and Sonny Weems had 24 points apiece and Marshon Brooks added 18 points. Carnell Stokes scored a game-high 38 points for Xinjiang and Abudushalamu had 19 points.

"We were lucky to win the game," Guangdong coach Du Feng said.

"Our opponents gave us many tough minutes, we had less rebounds in the first quarter, which was very dangerous," he added.

Guangdong had a quick start as Yi scored nine points and Ren Junfei had 10 for a 42-33 lead in the first quarter.

After Stokes led a 10-2 run for Xinjiang to cut the deficit to one at the beginning of the second quarter, Brooks hit eight points in a row in Guangdong's 16-4 spurt to enter the second half at 75-61.

Guangdong continued to show their power in both offense and defense in the third quarter with a 14-2 spree led by Yi, who made two 3-pointers, for a 110-87 lead into the last quarter.

"We had major problems on defense, Guangdong was very quick tonight," Xinjiang coach Adijiang said.

"We can't win a game when allowing our opponents to score more than 140 points," he added.

Game 2 will be played in Dongguan on Sunday. 

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